Murdair Mhám Trasna (The Mám Trasna Murders)

A feature length docu-drama centered on an infamous event in Irish history, the brutal slaying in 1882 of a family of five in the remote village of Mám Trasna in the west of Ireland. A swift and severe response from the British authorities to this Victorian era act of ‘terrorism’ led to the conviction of innocent people, the hanging of some and the imprisonment of others as a result of perjured evidence and bribery. The events were described by the prominent British historian Robert Kee as “one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice in British legal history”. As the miscarriage of justice began to unfold and the perjury was admitted in the press, both nationally and internationaly at the time, a refusal by Gladstone’s government to allow a public inquiry, contributed to the fall of that government in Westminster in 1885.

The innocent victims have never been pardoned by the authorities but this feature length production moves that prospect significantly closer.